P90X FITNESS FANS GET A NEW CHALLENGE

Sunday

Dec 25, 2011 at 12:01 AM

THE WASHINGTON POST

To give you a sense of what you’re up against if you attempt to make it through P90X2, the sequel to the popular P90X fitness program, here’s a sample exercise: the four- medicine-ball push-up. Yes, that means having a ball under each hand and foot. “It’s like doing push-ups during an earthquake,” says Tony Horton, who created the original program eight years ago.

That 90-day, 12-DVD regimen has sold 3.5 million copies, spawned an astounding number of before-and-after photos and become shorthand for “really hard workout.”

Now it’s time for an even harder workout. P90X2 (Beachbody, $139.80) is designed for folks craving more “muscle confusion,” a phrase Horton coined to describe the mishmash of moves designed to keep viewers’ bodies guessing.

What’s new for version two is that the cardio’s gone, replaced with workouts emphasizing a combo of speed, power and balance. And there are plenty of exercises Horton expects no one to be able to pull off on the first attempt.